In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, Gump says “My momma always said life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Well, the same thing can be said sometimes of rooms at audio shows. Each of the three best rooms on the second floor of the California Audio Show surprised me in some way.
PureAudioProject / Whammerdyne Heavy Industries Room
The big surprise in this room was the speakers. In fact, this was the first time I have been impressed with the horn version of these speakers. The system featured the PureAudioProject Trio15 Horn1 and Trio15 Voxativ Field Coil Modular Open Baffle Speakers ($7,490/pair) driven by a Whammerdyne 2A3 SE model DAA3+ RAM ($6,900) when I was in the room. Pat Hickman, founder of Whammerdyne Heavy Industries in Wilsonville, OR has a special sense of humor. This was the debut of this amp, and the DAA in the name stands for Damn Awesome Amp.
At shows over the years, I have thought that different PureAudioProject speakers sounded very promising. This year with this combo of speakers and amplifier, the sound was more than promising; it was one of the very best sounding rooms at the show.
They were also were using an Exogal Comet DAC ($3,000), a Wyred 4 Sound modified Sonos Connect ($900), and an MSB Technologies “Analog” DAC ($6,000).
The music in this room was very alive sounding with none of the restrictions that box speakers have. I have never been a fan of open baffle speakers, but I have to admit that with the work coming from PureAudioProject and Spatial, I am definitely changing my mind.
Joseph Audio Room
The sound in the Joseph Audio room didn’t surprise me. The surprise, or maybe it’s just a question, is how do they do it? How can a room with one integrated amp and two small speakers sound this good? No, it’s not inexpensive, but it is surely minimalist to the extreme.
The speakers were the Joseph Audio Pulsar speakers ($7,700/pair) driven by a Bel Canto Design Black EX Integrated amplifier ($15,000). The cables were the Cardas Audio Beyond XL power cables, Cardas Audio Clear Beyond speaker cables, and the Cardas Audio Clear Network cables. So sans cables, this was a $22,700 system, and I promise you that it would be hard to get better sound for under $30,000 or $40,000.
Zesto Audio Room
The Marten Django L speakers ($10,000/pair) were sounding so musical in the Zesto Audio room driven by the Zesto Audio Eros 300 monoblock Class A power amplifiers ($19,900/pair) connected to a Zesto Audio Leto 1.5 Vacuum Tube Preamp ($7,500) used with a Zesto Audio Andros Tessera Vacuum Tube Phono Stage ($12,000) and a Zesto Audio Allasso Step Up Transformer ($2,995).
The source was a Merrill Williams Audio REAL 101.2 Turntable ($7,200) paired with two Tri-Planar U2 (classic 10″) tonearm ($7,200 each, with a Benz Micro Gullwing SLR mc cartridge $3,600) and an Ortofon Cadenza Mono mc cartridge ($1,280).
The rest of the system was the Stillpoints ESS42-26-4 Rack ($10,000), Stillpoints Ultra 6 Feet (under power amps) ($899 each), Cardas Audio Speaker Cables – Clear Beyond ($4,085/2-meter pair), Cardas Audio Interconnects – Clear Beyond ($1,875/1-meter pair), Cardas Audio Interconnects – Clear Beyond ($2,675/2-meter pair), a Cardas Audio Power Cords – Clear Beyond ($522/1.5-meter), and a Cardas Audio Phono cable – Clear Beyond ($573/1-meter).
The system was incredibly musical and sonically magnificent; what a treat! So, what was the surprise? When I looked at the Zesto website, I found great coverage on them from this year’s AXPONA by two other audiophile publications, but this reviewer missed them there. We will try not to let that happen again!
